


Translation Error

by Shippingk8



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Banter, Dorky Fareeha, Espionage, Eventual Smut, F/F, Grumpy Angela, Guaranteed happy ending, Life on Base, Missions, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reunited after the Recall, Slow Burn, dealing with the past, partners
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-02-08 16:34:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18627040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shippingk8/pseuds/Shippingk8
Summary: Not all translation errors are in the form of language. Angela Ziegler has just returned to Overwatch and the transition is more difficult than she had expected. On her first mission alone she runs into a problem she didn’t anticipate, her partner, Fareeha Amari. The past does little to help her cope with all the new feelings that she must confront.





	1. Chapter 1 - Not a Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> **Author’s note :** Because I don’t want to have any translation errors of my own, I wrote the Arabic and German lines in this story so that they would directly translate into english if someone was using google translate. I know that is not the most accurate way to represent their respective languages, but I was trying to cater to an audience that probably doesn’t know either language. So if you do speak Arabic or Swiss German, apologies in advance for any awkward or inaccurate phrases.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Translation Error - the obstacle of moving from one state to another without trouble

Angela walked down the brightly lit halls of their newly established headquarters, curiosity rattling in the back of her mind.

Most of their members were already out on assignment, so it had been a surprise to receive a message from Jack to meet him in the mission room. So far all she had been tasked with, aside from her normal medical duties, was helping with logistics for the new base. She was cautiously excited about the prospect of getting out into the field again. If for no other reason than to breathe some fresh air.

When she entered the mission briefing room, her eyes took a second to adjust to the darker atmosphere and contrastingly bright screens at the center of the room. Jack’s back was to her as he looked at the files up on the mission room’s holo screens. His uniform may have changed and his hair had greyed, but Angela would know that rigidly stubborn stance, and it’s meaning, anywhere. The second she saw how he held his arms behind his back she knew that this briefing would be all business.

“An hour ago we received intel that the biotech smugglers Winston has been tracking will be sending one of their high level operatives to Kiev.” He spoke without turning around to properly acknowledging her presence.

Morrison tapped the control panel and the screen pulled up a new file and an accompanying website, but this time he waited for her to approach and read the screen before continuing, “They are sending an agent to the medical conference that is being held there over the coming days. Which means that you are the ideal person to send in.”

She quickly finished scanning the file with a tight lipped gaze, she agreed. In fact, she had planned on going to that particular conference before Winston had sent out the recall. But with all that they needed to accomplish before they were fully operational again, she had decided that it wasn’t the right time to take personal leave.

It had been a short three weeks since they reformed Overwatch, and her main priority had been to help manage logistics. She had just barely managed to scrape enough time together to get the medical bay up and running in the last week. Which was a bit of a mixed blessing.

She could now effectively deal with any minor or major medical issues that might arise, but it also meant that she needed to get on the huge backlog of physicals and diagnostic tests that were waiting to be completed on her tablet. With all the new and old recruits that were continuing to report in every week it would take her no less than a month to clear all the files she was responsible for.

So a mission was a was a bit of a relief if it gave her a break from her never-ending to do list; even if it came  from the ever glowering Mr. “76.”

“I'm not going to sugarcoat it,” he frowned. The two scars across his face stood out from his annoyed expression, “Our intel is extremely limited. All we have been able to gather so far is that the smuggling organization will be sending someone higher up in their ranks to the conference. Most likely to make contacts, find buyers, and possibly even identify new potential suppliers in the medical community. Normally, we wouldn’t send anyone in with little more than chatter to go on, but this group is one of Talon’s biggest suppliers. So we can’t afford to pass this up.

“Your objective is simple,” he continued after a pause. “Identify who they sent and gather any information you can on the smuggling ring’s objectives. Once we know who one of their people is we can use them to track down the rest of the major players.”

A gloved red finger swiped at the screen and it pulled up Fareeha Amari’s file, “Pharah will be accompanying you on this mission under the guise of your personal bodyguard.”

Angela’s right hand stiffened. She raised a blonde eyebrow, but tried not to broadcast her agitation directly. “If all you need me to do is ferret out a biotech smuggler and gather intelligence, I should go alone. No one knows that I rejoined Overwatch yet. Bringing a body guard could cause the wrong people to get suspicious enough to start digging into my cover story.”

Jack’s visage didn’t waver, “I’m not in the habit of sending people into the field without back up. If something goes sideways I want you to have someone watching your back.” He tapped the screen and Fareeha’s credentials and several photos zoomed into focus, “Fareeha’s previous job was with Helix Security. She has the best background and cover of anyone we have to accompany you.”

Blue eyes narrowed as she examined the pictures of Captain Amari. One of her in a military uniform, posture stick straight, apparel pristine, and face showing absolutely no emotion, and another showing Fareeha in a plain white t-shirt and camo pants wielding a handgun with perfect form during a training exercise.

“I’m not questioning her qualifications Jack,” Angela’s accent thickened as it betrayed her annoyance. She knew what this was really about, but was unwilling to show her hand if he wasn’t. “I’m simply pointing out the very real problem I will have in getting anyone of dubious intention to approach me if I have a bodyguard loitering around.”

He stared down at her, frustration in his eyes, “With all the recent turmoil that Talon has stirred up, no one will wonder why your front company is sending a world renown doctor to a foreign country with a security escort. Don’t draw too much attention to yourselves, and there won’t be any problems,” he emphasized. 

“Besides,” Jack pulled up a different screen, “Your latest shooting range report shows that you are far from field ready.” He finally turned to face her, his tall stature and broad physique dwarfing her own. His expression made it obvious that there would be no further argument, “You need back up, Doctor Ziegler.”

Angela swallowed back her reply, there was no point. His choice of words had made his position crystal clear. Jack believed that she had been away for too long. He now only saw her as a doctor, not an agent, not an operative, and definitely not a soldier. She wasn’t sure how she felt about his unspoken view of her, only that it certainly wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

Jack held a gloved finger down on the mission folder and swiped it in her direction. Her tablet flashed green to acknowledge it had received the mission file.

“You leave in 29 hours,” he turned away. “Good luck.”

* * *

 

 

 

Angela tucked the long bangs at the side of her face back as she secured her protective earmuffs. When she picked up the certification firearm she took a tense breath in. While she tried to steady her nerves her eyes adjusted from the bright walls of the control area behind her to the darker, narrow lane of vision that she now needed to focus on.

Recognizing that waiting longer wouldn’t get her anywhere, she tapped the floor sensor and shot at the targets that popped up. Her eyes quickly darted to the holo screen report, and she frowned as she read the results.

**|Three hits, two misses.|**

Her lips turned down and she held back a curse.

The fact that she couldn’t argue with Jack’s earlier rationale, only made her pride hurt worse.

Her drop in accuracy wasn’t a surprise though. She had always hated having to use a weapon, and in the six years since the signing of the Petras Act she had been more than happy to leave her blaster locked away in a safe. Where it belonged.

**_But..._ **

She looked down the range at her targets.

**_That isn’t the reality that I am living in anymore._ **

A deep sigh escaped her as she prepared to downgrade to a single objective.

**_Zurück zu den Grundlagen._ **

Angela tapped the floor sensor once and put all of her focus on her new mark. She fired her gun in two bursts, three rounds each. She looked at the black wall behind her target as she briefly avoided looking at her results.

She turned on her safety and glanced up; every round had hit, but just barely, and her grouping was anything but tight.

“Scheisse,” she swore in frustration as she brushed her fallen blonde locks up off of her face.  She wished she was at least allowed to qualify with her Caduceus blaster, but rules were rules and she was required to certify with a standard issue firearm. Angela set the gun down, then glared at it, “The sight must be off on this one, I can’t believe I am shooting that poorly.”

She was contemplating taking the weapon to Brigitte to check its accuracy when a familiar, yet unfamiliar, face approached her.

“Maybe I can be of assistance,” Pharah walked over and gestured to her gun.

The person in front of her resembled the Fareeha Amari that she once knew, but ever since she had reported in for the recall there was a certain air about her now that made it hard for Angela to reconcile who was standing in front of her now with the girl from their past.

It could have been that Fareeha was a good deal taller than her now and had a ridiculously stiff military posture. But it felt like more than that. She couldn’t recall seeing Fareeha smile once in the last three weeks, and the lightness that she remembered always being in a younger Fareeha’s eyes seemed to have disappeared in their time apart. It could have been Angela’s imagination, or even had something to do with the new tattoo that Fareeha had under her right eye, but the person before her just felt… different. 

A knot of discomfort grew in Angela’s chest. It was an odd thing to know someone so well in the past, yet not recognize their current self.

They had lost touch even before Overwatch had disbanded. Fareeha had joining the military and issues with Blackwatch kept popping up, so they had just grown apart.

The last time Angela had seen Fareeha was at her mother, Ana’s, funeral. They hadn’t spoken is so long that she had only given her friend a simple nod and stood to the side with the others during the service. She just didn’t know how else to respond. Time and circumstance had uncomfortably breached their friendship, and it felt disingenuous to address it on such a dark day.

Regret forced Angela’s mind snapped back to reality. She knew she should be polite and respond, but her thoughts and earlier frustration kept her rooted in a less than jovial mood. So she simply nodded and kept an observant eye on the person who would be her literal bodyguard on their upcoming mission.

Fareeha picked up her gun and quickly inspected it with discerning brown eyes. She ejected the magazine and swept a tan finger down the side as she silently counted the rounds that were left. Then she swiftly reloaded the gun with a fresh clip.

“Do you mind?” Fareeha asked as she gestured to Angela’s slot on the range.

Angela held back a frown and shrugged instead, “I assume not.”

Her new partner stepped up to her lane and tapped the sensor on the floor for a new target. The gun fired so quickly that Angela was barely able to count all of the rounds Fareeha had fired.

She looked at the holo screen and her eyes widened in surprise. Fareeha had put three shots left of center in her objective’s chest and another three in its head. The clusters were so tight that it looked like there were only two holes in the target. But the holo screen results indicated that all six rounds had, in fact, hit the mark.

Before Angela could comment Fareeha’s boot tapped the floor sensor three times and the multi-target scenario appeared. The white bullseyes slowly moved around their designated areas, but it didn’t matter. Fareeha moved with mechanical precision to puts two rounds into each of the four new targets. She was done in seconds, and all Angela could do was stare slack jawed at the raven haired woman’s marksmanship.

Fareeha set the gun’s safety and took off her ear protection. She turned to Angela with a grin, “The weapon seems fine.” She set the gun down and her mouth grew into a tight line, “But if I am being honest your basics are in need of some repair. Your stance is too narrow and you need to remember to breathe when you shoot.”

Angela simply gave her a raised eyebrow.

“If you widen your stance, and exhale before shooting it should help your accuracy. You seemed very tense while you were firing. I could,” the taller woman rubbed the back of her neck, “help you practice if you want. I trained many recruits while I was in the military.”

Angela’s temper flared and she grabbed her weapon, “I think I can handle it on my own, klein Amari.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked away, “I’m just out of practice.”

She could feel Fareeha staring at her, and Angela immediately regretted how harsh she had been. Especially to a person she had, long ago, considered a friend.

But again, she chose to hide the emotion from her face.

“As you wish,” Fareeha eventually answered, “I will leave you to it then.”

Soon after Fareeha left the range Angela’s shoulders sagged with remorse. Normally, she had better control of her temper, but being treated like an incompetent agent twice in one day had left her in an abominable mood.

She was an original member of Overwatch, not someone who needed a babysitter.

**_Still, it wasn’t right to take it out on Fareeha._ **

* * *

 

 

 

Angela rubbed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose before finally taking off her glasses and sliding them in the front pocket of her lab coat. She had been scouring the files on her upcoming mission and had pulled up everything she could find on the conference and its attendees. Some of her time had also gone into her own search on the smuggling organization, but Winston and Athena had obviously done their homework because she couldn’t find anything new.

They knew the smuggling organization was sending someone, but past that the intel just didn’t exist. She couldn’t even ascertain why an agent was being sent, past the obvious. In her six hours of research she had only managed to narrow down who they might be sending to five of the conference’s attendees.

She clenched her jaw and let her vision go out of focus as she stared at the shadowed stained walls of the medical bay’s office. It pained her to admit it, but with so little intel it was the right call to send her in with someone. She leaned back in her office chair and let out a long sigh.

If there was anything she hated it was uncertainty. She reached for her coffee cup before going back to digging for information, and paused when her stomach let out a loud growl.

“Scheisse,” she let out in a breath of frustration at realizing that she had forgotten to eat, yet again. The thought of going down to the mess hall for dinner was appealing, but the prospect of running into Jack or Fareeha put her nerves back on edge.

So she compromised and dug around in her cluttered desk until she found a ration bar. There were still a few more hours that she could work before she had to pack and get some sleep. Their flight tomorrow, thankfully, wasn’t an early one. She had never really been a morning person.

Her focus slipped and the earlier conversations with Jack and Fareeha rang in her ears.

_ “You need back up, Doctor Ziegler.” _

_ “I trained many recruits while I was in the military.” _

Angela clenched her jaw. If she could manage to get enough work done tonight she could make it to the range again before they left. 

She sat down her half eaten bar on top of a stack of disheveled research journals. But for now, there was work to be done.


	2. Chapter 2 - Old and New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time can have a strange way of invoking cognitive dissonance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author’s Notes:** A running joke through the story will be their nicknames for each other.  
> Klein Amari - “Little Amari”  
> Doctor Ghadib - “Doctor Grumpy” or “Angry Doctor”
> 
> .

 

The flight to Kiev had been short and uneventful. So much so that Angela briefly fell asleep while leaning up against the plane window. She didn’t wake up until she felt Fareeha gently shaking her shoulder. 

A frown pulled at Angela’s lips and she blinked the sleep out of her eyes. 

“Time to get up  Doctor Ghadib,” Fareeha grinned at her.

Angela was too groggy to ask what Fareeha had just called her, but when she noticed that the other passengers were starting to move about and grab their things from the overhead compartments she quickly understood that they had landed.

She carefully stretched her shoulders in the tight quarters of the cabin, then stood to retrieve her own luggage. 

As they walked down the jet bridge Angela became aware of a shift in Fareeha. 

The tall Egyptian was hyper alert and her posture was somehow more stiff than normal. Which, medically speaking, Angela wasn’t sure was even possible given how rigidly she had observed Fareeha standing over the last few weeks. 

A frown marked her face as she observed Fareeha. Whether she was playing the role of bodyguard or not, her stoic demeanor was disconcerting. 

**_There are momentary glimpses of the precocious girl that I once knew, but more times than not she seems like a rigid, emotionless hulk. What happened to you Fareeha Amari?_ **

The long walk to luggage pick up left her imagination with plenty of time to try and fill in the gaps. Between losing her mother and the life of a soldier, Angela felt she could relate all too well to how someone could change so drastically. But their similar past did little to sate her curiosity, she knew there had to be more. 

Upon reaching their hover car Fareeha opened the door to the backseat for her, but left to take the front passenger's seat. Angela quietly settled into the plush rear seat as their ground contact drove them to their hotel, only moderately irritated that she was left in the back on her own. 

She rolled her eyes, it wasn’t like she could have counted on Fareeha’s company anyhow. Since they had stepped off the plane, Fareeha had only talked to her when absolutely necessary. Angela held in a sigh as she pondered what exactly was hiding behind her partner’s silent visage. What had Fareeha seen and done in their time apart? What had happened to change her so dramatically? 

Angela pretended to look over files on her tablet as she observed her partner out of the corner of her eye. 

Fareeha continued to play the role of bodyguard to perfection. Her keen brown eyes scanned the areas that they passed like a wordless bronze statue. 

Inevitably, curiosity got the better of Angela and she used the passenger side mirror to study Fareeha’s face. She  _ looked  _ the same, just a bit older. Angela bit the edge of her lip as she focused in on the Wedjat below Fareeha’s eye. It was similar, but different from Ana’s. 

**_I wonder if that was intentional or if Fareeha wanted to-_ **

The car suddenly pulled to a stop. 

“What’s happening?” Angela called out to the driver.

“It looks like an accident,” he replied as he craned his neck to get a better look, “and a pretty bad one at that.”

She listened for the sound of emergency vehicles, and when she didn’t hear anything she pulled her med bag from her carry on.

“What are you doing?” Fareeha turned to ask.

“What do you think?” Angela snapped before exiting the car.

Fareeha followed, her tight black suit straining against her form as she quickly moved around the side of the car, “Return to the vehicle, please. An ambulance should arrive shortly.”

Angela patently ignored her. The wreck was only a few cars ahead of them, so a brisk handful of steps later she was at the scene. 

When she stepped into the steam and smoke of the accident she was able to spot the two vehicles from the sparks that one of the vehicle’s hover wheels was still giving off. She squinted as she surveyed the scene.

There was a woman in a hover car that had been hit by a man driving an old fashioned delivery truck. From a cursory glance at the damage to both vehicles she assumed that the man would be fine, but the woman… 

The front driver’s side of the smaller vehicle had been badly mangled, and even through the dirty air from the truck’s damaged engine she could see blood running down the woman’s face. 

First, Angela reached through the truck’s open window to check the man’s pulse. As she had thought, he was simply unconscious. She immediately left him and hurried to the woman’s car. 

When she went to open the door it stopped short, only giving her about forty centimeters of space. The metal was badly damaged and it prevented her from getting full access to the woman. Even so, Angela at least had something to work. 

She quickly saw that the woman’s leg had been partially crushed by the accident, so she tried to assess the severity of her state, “I’m a doctor. Are you able to open your eyes?”

After getting no response Angela touched the woman’s throat to feel for a pulse. 

Two green eyes blinked open, and Angela could see pain rapidly intrude on the woman’s consciousness. She cried out, then looked down at her leg. The woman’s eyes grew wide and she abruptly passed out.

“Natürlich,” Angela swore under her breath. She  knew without looking that Fareeha was behind her, “I’m going to need your help to get her out.”

Angela reached in and managed to unfastened the woman’s seatbelt. Then she got out of Fareeha’s way. She wasn’t sure if her partner was strong enough to pry any of the crumpled metal out of the way, but they needed to try. She knew from the amount of blood pooled on the floor of the car that they didn’t have time to wait for the ambulance to arrive.

Fareeha looked at the woman’s leg then at the door. She tried to push it open further but frowned when it only gave by a bit more. Calmly and quickly Fareeha took off her jacket and took in a deep breath. Then without warning she kicked the door with incredible force. 

The damaged driver’s side door flew off the car and into the street. 

Angela was shocked by Fareeha’s action, but couldn’t deny that it had been effective. Looking back at the car she felt a glimmer of hope at noticing that her partner’s kick had also loosened some of the metal that was pressing against the woman’s leg. 

Fareeha turned her head slightly to address her, “When I lift, pull her out.”

No further direction was given, and none was needed. Angela grabbed under the woman’s arms, careful to support her neck as best she could, then she gave Fareeha a nod.

With that, Fareeha pulled up and out on the bent metal as she pushed down with her foot at the base of the car. At first nothing happened, but then Fareeha let out a loud groan of effort and the metal screeched as it was pried back just enough.

Angela removed the woman and laid her on the ground. She unzipped her med bag and grabbed for a tourniquet, instead of the small nano tech emitter that she had brought. Nanotech was more effective, but it would be the same as signing her name on the woman. 

A few twists later she had stopped nearly all of the blood loss from the abrasions on the woman’s leg. She then went to check her patient’s head wound. Angela let out a sigh of relief at seeing that the injury was mostly superficial. She assessed the strength of the woman’s pulse once again and then grabbed a light from her bag to test for pupil dilation. 

The patient seemed stable, but most likely had a significant concussion. Angela looked around the still busy intersection, there was broken wreckage and glass everywhere. 

She looked to the street corner and spotted a clear patch of ground, “We need to move her away from here, but carefully.”

Fareeha took the woman’s legs and Angela lifted her from behind, still being mindful of her patient’s neck. 

Once they had set her down Angela took the precaution of checking her abdomen for internal bleeding, even though it was unlikely that she had suffered any blunt trauma during the crash. 

“Get my bag, please,” she asked Fareeha without looking up. 

In the short time that it took Fareeha to returned, Angela finally heard sirens. 

And apparently so did her unflappable partner, “We need to go now,” Fareeha spoke quietly, but with firmness. 

Angela didn’t like it, but Fareeha was right. The woman was stable and would be fine until the paramedics arrived. So she didn’t argue.

As she stood she saw Fareeha use two fingers to signal the driver to turn down the side ally near where their car had stopped. Then she threw on her coat and grabbed Angela’s medical bag, “Button up your coat and head down the sidewalk, please. If we are lucky the chaos and smoke will make our faces hard for onlookers or cameras to see with any accuracy.”

Angela looked down to button her jacket and realized why Fareeha had made the request. Her shirt had a large smear of blood on it mid way down. After her coat was buttoned she stood and calmly, but swiftly, walked down the block towards their waiting car. Fareeha towering close behind the entire time. 

The second they reached the car Fareeha opened the door and gently pushed at her to enter. 

As the car moved away from the scene, Angela’s mind raced to assess the full ramifications of her actions. She had just potentially jeopardized their mission, if anyone was able to identify them they might be ordered to abandon the operation. The police were also of concern, but were less of an immediate treat. They would likely prioritize finding the cause of the crash over identifying mystery good samaritans.

Before Angela could think on it any further they were pulling up to the hotel’s portico. She quickly checked herself to make sure that nothing about her appearance seemed amiss, as Fareeha spoke with the ground agent. When she was done speaking Angela gave a sharp nod to Fareeha to signal that she was ready go.

She took and held in a deep breath to slow her pulse as she waited for Fareeha to open her door. Check in needed to go smoothly, she could afford to draw any more attention. She entered the front doors doing everything she could to emit a calm and collected demeanor as she prepared herself to interact with the front desk attendant. 

As she approached Angela felt a wave of relief. 

There was only one man at check-in and he was absolutely overwhelmed with a phone call. She patiently waited for him to help her, easily ascertaining from his groveling tone that he was dealing with a very angry client. The attendant was so busy trying to placate whomever it was on the line that he didn’t even make eye contact with Angela while he confirmed her reservation and handed over their room keys. 

**_Klein Wunder._ **

Cards in hand Angela turned and gave Fareeha a small smile and a shrug, but Fareeha did not respond. Instead, her statuesque partner grabbed their luggage and followed her to the elevator without comment. Angela watched Fareeha set down their bags and push the button for their floor with an utter lack of emotion.

**_Still acting like a stone sphinx, eh?_ **

She shook her head and felt a gentle smile pull at the corner of her lip.

**_Not even I can tell that anything is amiss by looking at her. I wish I knew if she is mad at me for endangering our cover, or if she is just truly unphased by the whole ordeal._ **

The elevator dinged and Fareeha quickly scanned the hall before grabbing their things and stepping into the empty hallway. She walked straight to their room and impassively waited for Angela to hand her their room key.

With her hand on the holstered gun under her suit jacket Fareeha cautiously opened the door and stepped inside. Soon after she started to search the entire layout of their suite for signs of a threat or tampering. 

Angela, however, wasn’t quite as worried. The room had been booked by Athena while they were on their way to the airport. The likelihood of nefarious figures finding the room they were staying in in such a short amount of time was statistically improbable. 

Her patience for Fareeha’s thoroughness quickly grew thin and she drug all of their luggage inside. Angela was silently thankful that they only had four small bags between them as she shut the door. She silently appraised the suite while Fareeha continued her security sweep of the rooms. 

It was a larger room than she had anticipated. There were two separate sleeping quarters off of the main large living space. The central room alone was big enough for them to use as a base of operations during their mission, having their own bedrooms to work from was an added luxury. 

The sound of shoes on marble tile came to a stop as Fareeha concluded her sweep of the rooms at the center of their suit. Her partner calmly pulled out a small device that fit in the palm of her hand. 

“Power down your tablet and any other electronics, please,” Fareeha spoke as she pulled out her own phone.

As soon as they both had done so Fareeha twisted the bottom of the device to calibrate it, then pressed down on it’s glowing blue button. She waited a few seconds until the device flashed green. 

When it did she saw Fareeha’s posture loosen by the smallest margin, “The room is clean. You may speak as you wish.”

Angela appraised her partner with keen eyes before replying, “You are quite different than I remember  klein Amari.”

Fareeha looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “I could say the same about you  Doctor Ghadib.”

She still wasn’t sure what that word meant, but she had a guess. Angela looked down at her tablet as she waited for it to turn back on, “We need to report in, but I need to change first.”

When she lifted her gaze her eyes went wide and her cheeks flushed. 

It turned out, Fareeha was one step ahead of her. The tall Egyptian had taken off her shirt and was inspecting the blood stain that had been left on it from helping her carry the woman away from the accident. 

Having not completed the physicals on any of the Overwatch members yet, Angela was not at all prepared for what she saw.

**_Eindrucksvoll._ **

She swallowed as she  _ appreciated  _ just how developed Fareeha’s musculature was. Her partner was not as massive as someone like  Reinhardt, but Fareeha’s form was-

“I can treat your shirt along with mine,” Fareeha called out to her without looking up.

Angela chastised herself when she recognized that she had been staring and attempted to regain her composure.

Fareeha raised her gaze from her shirt. “That is unless you are shy and feel the need to change in private,” she smirked at Angela.

The connotation made Angela’s eyes narrow; she couldn’t abide being looked down upon. 

Not only was she older than Fareeha, but she was a doctor. She, of all people, was not embarrassed by the human form. Angela took off her jacket. She unbuttoned her blouse and removed her pants as well. Then threw both items to Fareeha. 

“You should check our coats for blood as well,” she stated as she bent down and grabbed her things out of her jacket’s pockets. 

When she stood she detected the barest glimmer of interest in Fareeha eyes. 

She grinned.

**_Not a total statue then._ **

As she collected her luggage, Angela spoke, “I will call in our status, and deal with any attention we might have drawn while you deal with that. Cold water and bar soap should do the trick, as long as the blood hasn’t dried yet. If the stains are too persistent though, you can leave them for me klein Amari.”

When she closed the door to her bedroom she could hear Fareeha mumbling in agitated, broken arabic. Most of it was unintelligible, but she heard something about ‘being a soldier’ and ‘knowing how to clean off blood.’

Angela shook her head and smiled. Before she prepared to check in she pulled out a fresh shirt and slipped it on. She was worried about reporting their status back to Jack, but as she buttoned her shirt her thoughts annoyingly wandered back to Fareeha. 

Her pulse quicken for just a moment as she recalled her partner’s marvelously chiseled torso. She shook her head and refocused on the task before her.

**_Quite different indeed._ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to get interesting, I hope everyone is interested to see what trouble these two get into next.


	3. Chapter 3 - A Dangerous Pursuit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are too dangerous to pursue and others are just too tempting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the crazy hiatus!

 

As Angela finished putting on her clothes for the conference she felt a pang of nervousness. She picked up her tablet and checked Athena’s report one last time. 

It had taken several nerve wracking hours, but the AI had swept every possible source and deleted all mention of anyone helping at the crash site from the media, medical, and official police records. 

The fact that neither of the accident victims remembered them and the nearby cameras had been unable to capture anything useable through all the smoke had sped the process exponentially. She could deal with mission complications, but her real stressor was the possibility of Jack finding out.

She knew how to handle his ire, but there was little she could do if he decided to abort their mission. Which was why she had contacted Athena, before she had checked in with him. After finding out that there were no known Talon agents in the area and that an information blackout had a ninety-six percent chance of total containment, Angela decided that she could live with having an omission in her checkin report to Jack. 

Seeing that there were no new changes to the AI’s initial assessment from the night before she felt her anxiety lessen. She let out a breath and started to move towards the door, tablet in hand. As Angela opened the door she looked over the conference schedule and her notes on her device. A quick glance up had shown that Fareeha was already getting ready and had their gear spread out on nearly every surface.

Her second glimpse however was a bit more lingering. She peered over the edge of her glasses and saw that her tall Egyptian partner was adjusting the body armor under her shirt and putting on shoulder harness. There was no denying that Fareeha pulled off the appearance of a bodyguard. 

Angela ran her tongue over her teeth.

**_And a very good looking one at that._ **

Her brow furrowed at the unbidden thought and she pushed up her glasses. “We ran into some luck,” Angela called out to her partner, “One of the five suspects canceled their trip to the conference last night.”

Fareeha picked up one of her guns and started inspecting it, “That is good news. Who is left then?”

Angela switched screens to pull up the files on their remaining targets. Then she tapped the first one and held up her tablet for Fareeha to see, “There is Dr. Sora Valdez, an American doctor who has recently been on the cutting edge of biometric enhancement using neuropathic implants, but previously had several ethics complaints filed against her.” She swiped at the screen and a man with slicked back hair appeared next, “Fareed Behmenesh, from Tarruke Genetics. Even though he is an executive in the company he seems able to live far above his means. He could be a source for the chemical or biomedical machinery that Moira’s lab would need.” 

She watched Fareeha holster her gun and then nod that she was done reading. She scrolled to the next profile, “Dr. Thakoon Yud, he recently opened his own state of the art pharmaceutical research company. He has half a dozen ethics complaints in his file. Several of them about dealings with Omnic related matters. In addition, his new company was entirely financed by shell corporations.” Angela frowned, “Which I wish I could say was uncommon for most medical entities, but is usually just an indicator that the company is solely interested in profit.”

Fareeha took the tablet from her and scanned his file carefully. She wordlessly handed it back to Angela and then picked up her second firearm. 

“And last, but certainly not least, Dr. Iraida Yefremova. She has risen to be the lead researcher at Anusoft in the field of prosthetic synchronization.” Angela glowered, “ Yefremova went on the list the second I saw her on the conference registry.”

Her partner raised an eyebrow at that.

“She is well known in the medical community for pushing boundaries, bending established medical guidelines, and,” Angela frown deepened, “Iraida also has a proclivity for making friends with whomever can get her what she wants, no matter how unsavory they may be.”   

Fareeha appraised her carefully, “You seem to know quite a bit about her.”

Angela averted her gaze. “We may have _very_ briefly,” she emphasized, “dated. As soon as I found out what Iraida was really like I called it off.”

She expected a quipe from Fareeha about putting her ex on the suspect list or her choice in romantic partners, but was instead met by silence as Fareeha continued to get ready. 

“That is everyone then?” Fareeha put on her black suit jacket.

“Yes,” Angela answered and switched back to the modified conference schedule she had made. “When Athena gave us access to the convention center database last night, I compiled a file of what presentations and panels each of them registered to attend. I’ll forward you the file, but you don’t need to worry about memorizing any their personal files since I will be doing all of the talking.”

Fareeha walked up to her and calmly, but out of nowhere said, “Unbutton your shirt please.”

From their close proximity alone Angela felt the urge to lean back, “Excuse me?”

“You briefed me on your side of the mission,” Fareeha answered. “Now it is my turn. I need to check your vest. The light weight armor you are wearing for this mission is easy to conceal, but it is not very reliable.”

Her answer was reasonable, but it was still a bit vexing to have someone else check her ability to put on gear. She wasn’t a child. She had cut body armor off enough patients to be rather familiar with it. Nevertheless, she complied with Fareeha’s request.

She stood firmly to brace herself for the rough tugs and jerks that she expected from her partner inspecting her vest, but that wasn’t at all what happened. Fareeha’s hands went to either side of her waist to check that the velcro was secure, then inspected the straps at Angela’s shoulders.

“Is that as high as you can wear it?” Fareeha pointed at the top edge of her body armor, “your chest is still quite exposed.”

“Yes,” she answered, “unless you prefer that I wear a turtleneck to try and entice people into letting their guard down around me.”

Fareeha grinned, “It has been a good look on you in the past.”

Angela rolled her eyes and started to buttoned her shirt back up, but she paused halfway and adjusted her body armor to sit just a little higher. When she was done Fareeha had picked up a type of gun harness, off of the back of the loveseat, that Angela was unfamiliar with. 

“If you don’t mind I should help you with this,” Fareeha raised the harness to clarify her meaning, “it is awkward to put on and if you don’t position it in the right way it will be noticeable.”

This time Angela was happy for the help. She slipped her arms through the harness, then Fareeha adjusted it from behind her. She could feel the gun holster at the small of her back. It would be a little hard to reach for but it was certainly more comfortable than a shoulder harness.

“Just don’t bend down to pick anything up or let anyone embrace you and your weapon will not be detected.” Fareeha held out Angela’s jacket for her, “We shouldn’t need them, but if we do, I equipped both of our weapons with partial noise dampening tech.

“Why not just let me bring my Caduceus blaster?” Angela asked a little defiantly.

Fareeha picked up Angela’s normal side arm in one hand and the much small firearm she was asking her to take instead, “On covert missions, size does matter. Don’t worry, I don’t anticipate us needing them for information gathering. It is strictly precautionary.” 

Satisfied with her answer Angela changed the subject, “So I assume this means you solved our problem of getting past security?”

Two holographic conference badges suddenly hung from Fareeha’s fingers. 

“Easily,” she smirked. “Our driver, Maksym, was very helpful and I worked the last of the logistics out with Athena this morning. We will use the northeast entrance that is in the middle of construction, but absent of workers this weekend, to gain access. Once we are in, we will send a simple text to Athena and she will add us to the conference database as checked in through the front entrance like everyone else.”

Angela held back a smile, as she admitted to herself that the longer they worked together, the more content she was to have Fareeha as her partner. 

Everything was finally set; it was time.

  


* * *

 

 

The second they slipped into the conference Fareeha was her shadow. Angela waded into the dense crowd of doctors and researchers as they scanned the wide halls of the conference for their first suspect, Dr. Valdez. 

Without checking, Angela knew that her partner’s eyes were scanning everything and everyone around them with a blank, stony visage. They had arrived outside of their first scheduled location a few minutes before the first panel discussion was to start, but she wanted to get eyes on their target before they had to find seats. 

Angela was carefully surveying the crowd while exchanging pleasantries, when suddenly people started to move out of the way to her right. From a sea of people, Dr. Valdez abruptly appeared. She was a small but severe looking latina woman in a smart looking blue dress and black suit jacket. Her hair was pulled up in a tight bun and her gate, as she walked towards the panel's entrance, gave the very clear impression that she was not interested in socializing. 

As she contemplated Dr. Valdez’s demeanor Angela bit the edge of her lip. It was clearly going to be hard to broach a conversation with her, but if she could just get a seat next to- 

“Angela, is that you?” a gratingly familiar Russian accent accosted her ears over the din of the crowd. 

Before she turned Angela knew what she would see. From her left a tall, slender woman with short black hair in a dark grey suit and heels approached her. 

“It is,” Doctor Yefremova held out her pale hands to gesture for an embrace, “how good to see you again _moy sladkiy_.”

Angela remembered the weapon strapped to her back and stiffened. She didn’t know how she was supposed to reject a hug from someone whom she then needed to get information out of. 

Suddenly, an arm shot out and blocked the tall Russian’s path. Iraida looked from the hand that blocked her path to Fareeha, and raised a disapproving eyebrow. Irida’s light blue eyes gave Angela a questioning look before she spoke, “I know you have always had a thing for the tall ones Angela, but your current companion is quite possessive.” 

It took considerable effort, but Angela fought off the urge to roll her eyes and laughed instead, “Apologies Iraida, the new firm I am working for insists that I can’t go anywhere without security.” 

“Ah,” She smirked, then eyed Angela’s body. 

A shiver of disgust ran through her, she knew _exactly_ where things were going to lead next. 

“Then that means you are still single?” Iraida’s sharp features broke into a lecherous grin, “I would love to steal you away for the night and pick things up where we left off.”

Angela had to grit her teeth to stop from saying something that would blow her chances of questioning her ex. She gave Iraida a small frown and feigned disappointment, “Unfortunately, I was sent here strictly to make new business contacts, so my schedule is absolutely packed. The pay and facilities might be amazing, but” she gestured to Fareeha, “my new employers are strict.”

“Hmm,” Iraida looked at Fareeha standing behind her and frowned. “Well if something changes, I am sure you still have my personal number.” An alert sound came from her suit jacket and she pulled out her device to check the message. “Cutting edge biostatistics with Dr. Schubert?” She laughed, “That _starikashka_ belongs in a museum.

“You will have to excuse me moy sladkiy,” she put her device away, “It seems like I am due at a presentation that I must pretend to have an interest in. Anusoft expects me to listen to enough would be scientists to fill out a competing interests report.” She smirked, “As if anyone here can present anything to rival my work.” 

“But,” Iraida’s gaze landed on Angela’s chest, “I do hope we see each other again soon. Next time,” she raised her eyes towards Fareeha, “without your glowering companion.” 

Angela watched her ex walk away and the anxiety that her presence brought lifted. 

**_Was zur Hölle did I ever see in her?_ **

The second Iraida was is out of earshot Fareeha gently placed her hand on Angela’s waist and leaned down to ask, “Are you alright?” 

“Of course.” Angela scoffed, “She might be despicable, but it doesn’t seem like she is who we’re looking for.”

“Agreed.” Fareeha removed her hand and gestured to the panel they had been about to attend, “Shall we then? Or do you need a shower first?”

Angela turned and grinned at her partner, “So you _do_ still have a sense of humor?”

Fareeha straightened back into her rigid posture as her eyes surveyed the hall for people once more, but after checking she briefly dropped the facade and gave Angela a smirk and a wink before returning to her bodyguard facade. 

It was so cute that Angela had to bring her hand to her mouth to cover a laugh. 

The exchange had left her with hope that Fareeha might have finally decided to loosened up, but the second they stepped through the doors to the panel her partner’s thick walls returned. And they lasted through the entire panel. 

While it was disappointing, it was understandable. They had a mission to complete. 

From her seat, Angela quickly spotted Dr. Valdez. She kept a close eye on their suspect, but halfway through the presentation Angela got the impression that the American was not there for nefarious reasons. She was taking notes, posing questions, and seemed genuinely engaged. It didn’t exclude her completely, but it did move her down on the priority list.

Dr. Yud, on the other hand, had been anything but attentive. He had been talking to the people next to him, checked his phone multiple times, and had only looked up at the presenters twice during the whole hour and a half long panel discussion. 

The second the event ended, Dr. Yud handed business cards out to his two seat partners and went off to schmooze with the rest of the people who were sticking around for the next presenter. 

Curiosity piqued, Angela walked through a small crowd of people to approach Dr. Yud.

“Hello” she opened with a smile, ”Are you by chance Dr. Thakoon Yud?”

An asian man with neatly maintained 5 o’clock shadow in a custom blue suit turned to her. “Doctor Angela Ziegler,” he smiled, “How delightful to meet you, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

She instantly recognized that his perfectly side-parted and gelled hair matched his plastic smile. Something about him gave her the right kind of bad feeling. 

“Actually,” she returned his greeting with a grin, “I had hoped that I might run into you today.”

Dr. Yud raised an eyebrow and he smirked, “Really?”

Interest sparked she decided to set the lure, “Yes, I am currently working for Intellex Nano Tech, and I heard that you have just opened you own research labs. Since both companies are so new but in different fields,” she let her words linger, “I was wondering if we might be able to establish a friendly relationship.”

His eyes betrayed his interest in her insinuation to share information. Now all she had to do was determine the nature of that interest, was he looking for insider secrets or a new supplier. 

He opened his mouth to speak, but then his gaze moved to Fareeha and a small frown marked his face.

**_Verdammt._ **

Angela laughed at his expression, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for my associate to alarm you. My company is far too protective.” Fareeha was standing behind her so Angela gave him a knowing look, “I swear they are more concerned about making sure I don’t give away any proprietary secrets than they are about me.”

If he caught her signal Dr. Yud didn’t let it show on his face. Instead, he looked at Fareeha again and frowned, “How troublesome for you. I think setting up friendly communication is a wonderful idea. And on the off chance that you can find some time to slip away it would be nice to speak with you again.” He held out his hand palm up and she placed her hand in his. “Any time spent talking to Doctor Angela Ziegler is sure to be a profitable conversation indeed.” He smiled once more, then he pulled a business card out of his breast pocket and gave it to her. 

She gave him a polite smile as she took the card, “It was wonderful to meet you Dr. Yud.”

He walked away and made his way toward the main hall. Fareeha turned to keep her eyes focused on him as he left. After a few seconds, her partner spoke in a tone low enough that only Angela could hear, “The other business cards that he gave out were from the case in his pants pocket.”

Angela’s suspicion grew exponentially. She carefully looked at the thick glossy card in her hand, but nothing seemed off. When she flipping the business card over however, she found the difference. A handwritten contact number was scribbled on the back of the card with the message, ‘If you are interested in lucrative opportunities.’ 

It was subtle enough, nothing that could be traced back to him as untoward if someone like the police got their hands on it, but after their conversation the meaning was hard to mistake. Angela turned in time to see Dr. Yud exit the room. 

She spoke to Fareeha without breaking her gaze on their suspect, “It’s him.”

They spent the next few hours following him to other talks and observing his behavior, but it was obvious that their assumption was correct. He would talk a good number of people, but any time his conversation lasted longer than a few minutes there was a good chance that he would hand them a card from his breast pocket. And it was far too coincidental that he primarily gave the special cards out to prominent members in the medical field who had also been on Angela’s unrefined suspect list. 

She glanced at her watch and started to look for a seat at the latest lecture on his schedule. She turned when she felt Fareeha subtly touched her waist, “He is on the move.”

She turned to look for where she had seen Dr. Yud last, but he was gone. When her eyes moved to the exit though, she quickly found him. 

“He hasn’t deviated from the presentations he signed up for all day.” Her eyes narrowed, “Something is about to happen.”

Fareeha didn’t say anything, her eyes narrowed just enough that Angela knew she agreed. They made their way to the exit to follow him, but once they reached the main hall he had disappeared into the crowd.

**_Scheisse, we can’t lose him now._ **

The mission might only be to identify the smuggling agent, but their proof was circumstantial and she felt, down to her core, that something crucial was about to transpire. Angela scanned the throng of people with a frown; her height prevented her from seeing more than a few people into the crowd. 

She felt a hand touch between her shoulder blades and she looked up to find Fareeha. When she followed her partner’s line of sight she spotted Dr. Yud making his way out one of the side exits. From the blueprints that Fareeha had secured Angela knew that that particular door lead to a secondary delivery area. It was the perfect spot to slip away unnoticed.

Without hesitation she made her way through the mass of people between them. 

“Doctor Ziegler,” she heard Fareeha’s calm but insistent voice. 

When she looked back she saw that Fareeha was nearly six meters behind her and struggling to catch up. The look Fareeha gave her was clear. She wanted her to wait, but the urgency of keeping eyes on Dr. Yud weigh on her. So she ignored her partner’s request.

Within seconds she had made her way to the door and cautiously pushed it open. When she didn’t see anyone she stepped out and quickly started to survey the area. 

But all she saw was a small latina woman dressed in purple and black at the end of the alleyway.

When their eyes met the woman bolted back around the corner, and there was a flash of purple light. Angela turned to the stairs on her right to pursue the woman, but instead found Dr. Yud at the bottom pointing a gun with a silencer up at her.

Her instincts kicked in and time slowed, there was no way that she would be able to reach her gun in time, and something in his eyes told her that she would be relying on her body armor very soon. 

The door she had come out of opened, and fierce brown eyes assessed the situation in an instant. Angela looked back at Dr. Yud and his eyes narrowed. 

The sun disappeared as Angela was knocked off her feet and the sound of four muffled shots reached her ears. 

The impact of falling from the loading dock hurt, but Fareeha had taken the brunt of it for them.  

Angela sat up and looked from her downed partner to the fleeing doctor. A toxic mix of anger, guilt, and worry storm inside of her. She pulled her gun loose, and cool fury coursed through her veins as she leveled her gun on the man. 

She let out a deep breath as she squeezed the trigger twice.

Both shots hit him in his right shoulder, and he let out a loud, pained moan. His weapon dropped, and he grabbed at his shoulder before collapsing to the ground.

She kept her gun leveled on him, but looked down at her partner. 

Brown eyes cracked open to look up at her, “All of them hit the jacket.” Fareeha gritted her teeth, “Go secure him.”

Regret tore into her, but she did as she had been told. 

It took her a few minutes, but she drug the passed out Dr. Yud from plain view and secured him before pulling the small nano emitter she had brought with her from her pocket to heal him. 

One of the shots had pierced the soft tissue of his shoulder, but the other had hit his scapula. Thankfully the small caliber of her gun hadn’t shattered the bones in his shoulder, but the damage was not insignificant. From a cursory inspection she could assume that he had a fractured scapula and significant tissue damage. 

The emitter quickly went to work and was able to eject the bullet and stop his bleeding. But the device soon flashed red to indicate that it had reached its limit.

Angela glared down at him, but was far more irate with herself then she was at him. Her pride and eagerness to prove that she could handle things on her own had put both of them in danger. And now she didn’t have any nanotech left to heal Fareeha.

She gave the passed out Dr. Yud one more look, then raced back to the foot of the loading dock. Angela carefully turned her partner over, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Fareeha’s words had been accurate. All of the rounds had hit the top of Fareeha’s vest and none of them had gone through.

“I told you,” Fareeha grumbled from her face down position, “I’m fine.”

A tight frown marred Angela’s face. Fareeha wasn’t fine, she would be as soon they got back to headquarters. That did little, however, to change the reality of the matter. 

She had long since known how to read ballistic trajectories and was extremely familiar with the limitations of body armor. If Fareeha hadn’t gotten there in time it was very likely that she wouldn’t be alive right now. Her lips tightened as she helped Fareeha sit up. 

The bullets had all hit her armor, but Fareeha was still going to have major contusions and several cracked ribs to suffer through before they got back to base.

Angela swore under her breath. It was only supposed to be a quick information gathering mission, but-

A weak laugh came from her partner as Angela carefully leaned her against the concrete wall, “Don’t frown like that, I know you will fix me up as soon as we get back.” Fareeha smirked when their eyes met, “Just don’t drool on my shoulder on the flight back this time, or _I_ will be the one scowling.”

It was good to hear Fareeha make a joke, but it didn’t distract Angela from the pain she could read in her partner eyes.

**_This is my fault._ **

 

 

* * *

 

 

In less than twenty-four hours they were back and walking down the hall from the brig to debrief with Jack in the mission room. 

The irony of having to coordinate with HQ to smuggle the smuggler out of Ukraine hadn’t been lost on her. Though the fact that Fareeha hadn’t made any jokes about it on the way back spoke volumes about how bad the pain of her fractured ribs must have been. 

Angela held in a deep breath, she knew her stubborn partner was still in a great deal of discomfort, because Fareeha had outright refused to take any pain medicine until they stepped onto base. She knew that Fareeha was trying to be noble and protective, but it just made Angela feel worse.

She looked at Fareeha when they reached the door to the mission room, and waited for her partner to give her a nod.

When they entered Jack was standing there waiting for them, “Well,” he looked at both of them critically, “that went a bit different than planned.”

He pulled up the video feed of Dr. Yud sitting in one of their interrogation rooms. McCree was already interrogating him, and the doctor was protectively holding his still healing shoulder as he spoke, “I’ll give you whatever you want. Just give me immunity and protection and you can have everything I know.”

Jack closed the link, “As soon as we get what we need from him we will send in raid teams to clean up the whole organization.” He smirked, “Winston is ecstatic.”

Tension built in her chest. She had known Jack for a very long time; she knew the other shoe was about to drop.

He swiped at the screen and a picture of the woman that Angela had seen in the ally popped up. “But this was not what I would call a tidy operation. The person Dr. Yud was meeting has been identified as Sombra. She is considered to be one of the top hackers in the world, and she usually works for Talon.”

Faded blue eyes narrowed at her and he pulled up the same report that Athena had sent her, “It is a miracle that your little stunt at the car accident didn’t tip her off and blow your cover. 

“You are damn lucky that there was no video captured at the scene,” he pointed to the Talon agent that she had seen in the alley, “or Sombra would have picked you up on her facial recognition in a second. Not to mention,” his voice raised, “you would have spent half the conference being interrogated by the local police about your fake VISAs, if you had been identified by the local authorities” 

Jack growled, “It took the ambulance less than seventeen minutes to respond to the accident. Your actions weren’t worth the risk Angela.” She looked away as he continued on, “Not to mention your-”

“Sir,” Fareeha interrupted him, “I agree with agent Mercy’s actions. The woman at the accident would have bled out by the time the ambulance arrived. Standing by and waiting for help was not the right call. We are here to protect people, and that is exactly what my partner did. ”

“Don’t call me sir,” he grumbled. He looked at the two of them for a long moment and then turned around. There was a long moment of silence before he finally continued, “Mercy, get your partner patched up. She isn’t as good at hiding her injuries as she thinks she is. We’ll finish this discussion later.”

After they left, the long walk across base to the medical bay was filled with an uncomfortable silence. Angela’s emotions were too mixed to decide on what, or even if she should say anything to Fareeha.

When they reached the medical bay she pressed on the keypad to open the door. Upon entering, she grabbed her lab coat off of a hook on the wall, then she pointed towards an examination room, “Let’s get you healed.”

She had stopped by her desk to pick up a few things, so when she entered the room Fareeha was already sitting on the examination table. Her back was to Angela and she was trying to take off her shirt and sports bra. She stepped forward when she heard the stubborn Egyptian hold back a groan of pain. 

“Here,” she gently touched Fareeha’s arm, “let me help you.” 

Normally she would have just cut the shirt off, but Fareeha had already worked the garments more than halfway off. Angela started to peel off the elastic tape she had used to secure Fareeha’s broken ribs and her lips grew into a tight line at just how severe the contusions on her partner’s back looked after twenty-four hours. 

“If you can lay on your stomach I can mend the fractures,” Angela pulled the diagnostic monitor into position and then grabbed two small nanobiotic emitters. She carefully placed them on either side of Fareeha’s back, “But you will still have some minor bruising and swelling until your body recognizes that you are no longer injured and starts to clear away any residual clotting that the nano emitters fail to recognize.”  

Angela walked back to the monitor and activated her nanotech. A small bit of tension eased in her chest as she watched Fareeha’s bruised skin slowly start to return to its normal hugh of warm sepia. 

She carefully appraised Fareeha’s progress on the monitor, and was thankful for the very medical nature of their situation. Her more primitive consciousness was quite aware that there was a tan, muscular, half naked woman on her examination table, but guilt and years of medical practice made it easy to ignore such thoughts.

When the process was complete Angela removed the devices from Fareeha’s back and then busied herself with putting away her equipment to give Fareeha some privacy.

“Thank you,” Angela said, when she finally decided to break the silence between them. She turned around as Fareeha was pulling down her shirt into place, “You didn’t need to stand up for me with Jack.”

Fareeha looked at her with a grin, but said nothing.

Angela wanted to press for more conversation, but held herself back. If Fareeha didn’t want to talk about things then it wasn’t her place to intrude. She thought that her old friend had started to loosen up during their mission, but it was possible that their time apart had simply been too long. Perhaps an easy-going friendship just wasn’t an option anymore.

Brown eyes appraised her for an uncomfortably long second, but then a subtle smile grew on Fareeha’s lips, “I never told you this, but I have always admired you. Since the day we met, you have had an iron will to help those in need.”

Fareeha looked away and shook her head. Angela wanted to say something in return, but reasoned that it was better to let Fareeha speak her mind. 

“For a long time I saw my mother as a great hero of Overwatch: sitting in a nest somewhere making sure that everyone got home safely, but,” Fareeha met her gaze, “over time I realized that _you_ are the most important person in all of Overwatch. Any number of people can and have served as soldiers, but there are few in the entire world who have the potential to save as many lives as you, Angela.”

Her words were said with such conviction and sincerity that Angela didn’t know how to respond. 

She brushed the hair at the side of her face behind her ear and looked away as she let out a gentle laugh, “It seems you have grown in more ways than one, klein Amari.” 

When she turned back she could no longer contain the regret she had been holding on to, “I’m sorry for how I acted during our mission, I was reckless,” she gestured to Fareeha’s injures with a deep frown, “and quite… disagreeable the entire time.”

Her apology made Fareeha grin, and somehow it made Angela want to open up to her even more.

“I, once again,” she sighed, “find myself surrounded by soldiers. And though I kept telling myself I was fine, I let my pride get the better of me.” She smirked playfully at Fareeha, “It is very easy to feel useless when you get sent on a mission with a literal bodyguard.” 

Fareeha gave her a smile and a nod of understanding in return. Then after a second spoke, “I noticed you staring earlier.”

Angela’s face flushed as she realized just how many different instances Fareeha could have been referring to over the last few days.

“At my tattoo,” Fareeha waved her hand and laughed. She touched the black design on her cheek then spoke, “When my mother died I got this to honor her. I was always told that it was a symbol of protection, but one day I realized that it was not for me, but a symbol of my duty to protect others.

“I chose to be a soldier so that I could protect things of value. And you Angela Ziegler, are irreplaceable.” Fareeha smiled and her dark brown eyes filled Angela with warmth. There was a moment of silence between them before Fareeha spoke again, “You will always have my protection, Doctor Ghadib.”

Angela rolled her eyes at the nickname, “I know what that means now, klein Amari.”

Fareeha stood and Angela couldn’t help but feel their height difference. The taller woman grinned down at her and gave her a wink, “And I am no longer little, so perhaps new nicknames are in order?” 

A strong, yet gentle hand came to rest on her shoulder. “I meant what I said. You can always depend on me Angela,” Fareeha looked at her with impossibly kind, soft eyes and Angela felt transfixed. It made something inside of her… shift.

But as suddenly as it had started, the moment passed. 

Fareeha bid her a good night, and Angela found herself standing near her desk as she vacantly gazing at the medical bay doors. Time passed slowly as her brain raced to interpret what had just happened between them. 

Her progress was hindered by a gnawing sensation in her gut. She knew that something important had just changed, but she was too afraid to investigate exactly what. So instead, she decided to sit at her desk and bury herself in paperwork. 

A tactic that, regrettably, did not succeed. After an hour of avoidance she found herself rereading the same sentence for a seventh time.

“Verdammt,” she clenched her jaw in frustration. She was old enough to know what had shifted inside of her, but acknowledging it seemed like a fool's errand. 

When her thoughts drifted to those soft brown eyes and that goofy, yet confident grin she realized that she could no longer hide from the truth. She was attracted to Fareeha Amari. 

Angela sunk her head into her hands and let out a groan. 

**_Why did she have to go and change so much?!_ **

She let out a sigh and looked at the doors to the medical bay. 

At least they weren’t partnered with each other anymore. She knew, without a doubt, that if she got to know this _new_ Fareeha any better… her simple feelings of infatuation would all too quickly turn into something more. And that was far too messy and complicated for her to even think about. Thankfully, it was a very large base and they were sending people out on missions every day.

**_It is no different than any other time in my life. I just need to wait it out and try to avoid her until this ridiculous crush passes._ **

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again that it took me so long to post this, but the good news is that things are starting to heat up and I got some inspiration today on where I want to take the story moving forward. I originally had this story all mapped out, but I think I have come up with a couple of ideas that will really step things up in the middle and towards the end. 
> 
> Hope you liked this chapter, things get interesting and angsty (angstier?) from here on out.

**Author's Note:**

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>  **Other stories to check out:**  
>  "Recovery" - Volume 4 Freezerburn  
> "A Business Proposal" - Freezerburn AU  
> "Freezerburn Drabbles" - Fun fluff pieces from Recovery that stand on their own
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